4 months in the life of our apprentice Annie
February 2022
At The Brokerage we believe that apprenticeships are a valuable and important part of the early careers offer and encourage our corporate partners and candidates to consider them as a great alternative to the classic route of University, followed by a graduate scheme.
We also want to practice what we preach and in September we hired our own school-leaver Apprentice, Annie, on a Level 3 Business Administration and Recruitment Apprenticeship. For the last 4 months Annie has been sharing her experience over on The Brokerage Hub and to mark National Apprenticeship Week 2022 we’ve pulled together some of her highlights below.
Week 1: My journey to becoming an Apprentice
“So for the past couple of weeks my days have been filled with meeting and getting to know everyone (who have all been so lovely), if I had joined The Brokerage 6/7 months ago I probably wouldn’t have made it past the call to confirm the interview, my confidence was that bad! However, at my past job I was a sales assistant at JD and they didn’t give me a chance to be nervous! I really enjoyed the social part of my last role however, selling shoes was definitely not for me!
“When I say finding a role that I truly feel has suited me I mean it’s been a long journey, I was studying makeup last year which I despised, I then wanted to be an airhostess, no clue why I thought this was a good idea as I’m terrified of planes. At one point I even wanted to be a midwife which again confused my family as I could faint at the sight of blood! The list goes on, which as you can imagine is why I’m so happy to be working at The Brokerage. I know I’m going to be making a difference, I’m helping people and I’m in an environment where I know I can grow!”
Week 3: Finding my feet
“Last week I attended an event with Markel which was quite interesting. Never did I think I would find insurance fun! However, the views from the Walky Talky probably contributed to that factor quite a lot. It was a great chance to network and also work on my communication skills! I can get so nervous talking to people sometimes and I always rush my sentences and talk really fast, definitely something I need to work on! I also got to meet the Markel apprentices and graduates which was so lovely to speak to people who are doing similar things to me.
“I found my first 2 weeks at The Brokerage daunting and I never thought I’d get the hang of anything. However, with the support of all my colleagues I’m definitely starting to find my feet. So far I’m really enjoying my apprenticeship and all the things I’m learning, I couldn’t really imagine myself going back to college and feeling stuck which is exactly how I felt for so long!”
Week 8: Developing my skills
“Last week I attended the launch of our corporate partner mentoring schemes which was such a fantastic opportunity! It was such a great way for me to gain experience on networking and also work on my confidence. I got to meet some more of our candidates which was amazing as always. In person events are definitely a huge perk that comes with working at The Brokerage, the offices are always so lovely!
I’ve started to get the hang of my work so much more I’m definitely super proud of myself (and surprised with myself). One of the main things starting my apprenticeship that I wanted to work on was my skills with Excel, and when I say work on I mean gain completely! I had no idea how to work the programme. It stressed me out so much, however, I now can make charts and tables on there, miracles do happen everyone. I’ve been at The Brokerage for around two months now and time has flown by. I’ve already learnt so much and can’t wait to see what the future holds.”
Week 13: A new challenge
“So yesterday I did my first public speaking event , I enjoyed it so much! We went to a secondary school to tell everyone about the brokerage and the benefits of becoming a candidate. It went really really well. I was definitely nervous at first (I could literally feel my face turning into a tomato) but I definitely warmed up to it in the end and found that I actually enjoyed it alot. I’m really looking forward to doing more speaking events now that I know they’re not all that horrifying! These last few weeks have been so busy at the brokerage it’s definitely a new experience that I’ve enjoyed a lot!
To learn more about apprenticeships why not join our Apprenticeships 101 online Webinar on 23 February 16:30-17:30. This is open to anyone interested in finding out more about apprenticeships.
To continue to follow Annie’s journey sign-up as a Brokerage Candidate where you can continue to read her updates on our Hub.
Annie also supports us with creating TikTok content for our Brokerage account which you can follow here.
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